The National Assembly has commended the Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo over the 2024 budget performance of the Ministry.
Senator Adams Oshiomhole, APC, Edo North led joint Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Interior gave the commendation when the Minister appeared in the National Assembly to defend the 2025 budget of the Ministry.
In his presentation on Wednesday, Tunji-Ojo told the lawmakers that the Ministry’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) exceeded its target In the 2024 budget.
He said, “In 2024, we had a revenue target as approved by the National Assembly of N1.2bn for business expatriates quotas and naturalisation. But what we were able to generate was N4,508,306,968.5.”
The Minister explained that the increase in the IGR was not a result of the increase in expatriates’ quota revenue, noting that a lot of key sectors within the Ministry came alive in the last financial year. He however attributed the increase to some measures adopted by the Ministry to close linkages via zero remittances and a full automated of solutions.
According to him, it was the automation of these solutions that closed some of the linkages which made the revenue shoot up.
The Minister further stated that the total target for 2024 was N2bn, stressing that in the actual sense, it was able to generate over N5bn in the year under review.
Impressed with the budget performance, the lawmakers, who could not hide their satisfaction, commended the Minister for a job well done, with the committee chairman, Senator Adams Oshiomhole taking the lead.
Oshiomhole said, “Honourable Minister you have done extremely well. I think you have been detailed, I have attended some other budget defence and I can’t recall anyone as extremely detailed as you did.
“We have seen what you have done in 2024, we expect you to do more in 2025 knowing that you have a lot of energy.
“Now you have made your presentation and I believe we are very satisfied with your explanation. If there are more questions, like you said after this budget session, we can have a special session to discuss further.”
Meanwhile, the Minister proposed a total of N6,683,463,175 for the 2025 budget, with the breakdown of Personnel, 1,692,410,481; Overhead,1,159,879,666 and Capital, 3,831,173.58.
Vanguard